Mathilde-Hasnae M.

While passing by on Henri-Bourassa going East, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, some open frame structures in Pilon Park. Their roofs were partially covered with what appeared to be recycled steel sheets from old barns. On my way back, I went through the park where I read a poster announcing that "Le Marché du Nord" would be held for three consecutive Saturdays.

The following Saturday, a small market was effectively sheltered by these ephemeral constructions. This year is a first experiment, but it should be repeated in the fall of the years to come.

There were also on the same site a few modest canopies housing a parallel activity. Wondering what it was, I approached two women at the kiosk of L’Accorderie de Montréal-Nord, Mathilde-Hasnae and Isabelle. They explained to me that this was La place de l’engagement (the commitment place), an annual gathering of community organizations that cooperate with each other in Montreal-North. The event was held next to the Marché du Nord this year to avoid a dispersion of potential visitors. As they were on site to reach out to people, I only took the time to take some pictures. We agreed that I would meet Mathilde another day at the offices of L’Accorderie in the Îlot Pelletier community housing project.

So it was by a late Monday afternoon that Mathilde received me. She first took me around the premises of L’Accorderie and its food buying group, as well as around the collective garden of the Îlot Pelletier residential complex.

Mathilde was born of a Moroccan father and a French mother in Libourne in South-West France, near Bordeaux. She first earned a BA in Geography in Bordeaux, which included an internship at Plymouth in Southern England. While following this program, she realized that it was the issues of community development and international cooperation that interested her the most. She then studied in Paris, where she completed a Masters in Local Development. As part of her studies, she did an internship in Morocco with an organization devoted to the promotion of girls’ schooling in their communities.  It did so by finding the resources to contribute to the construction of schools staffed by local teachers.

She landed in Montreal three years ago to join her boyfriend of the time, who was already here to pursue his studies. It was also a bit because she was well aware that her friends and fellow students in France were only finding precarious jobs in her sector. Arriving here with a Working Holiday work permit for one year, she first did a five-month internship at L’Union Française, where she organized cultural activities for newcomers. Subsequently, she found her current position as animator at L’Accorderie, which was more in line with her academic background. Program after program, she was able to continue her immigration process from Montreal.

Although, like all immigrants, she is homesick at times, she believes to be in Quebec for good. She likes the relationships between people here. As she arrived in Montreal in January, the winter does not scare her. It must be said that, for many people, snow is better than the dark and damp greyness of Paris in January. She has also become an adept of cross country skiing and snowshoeing. What she likes the least in Quebec however, is the overly consensual spirit that reigns there, making it difficult to challenge authority. She also finds unacceptable the challenges to be faced here to see a doctor. It would be hard to argue that she is not pointing a major problem.

Musician at heart, she played the saxophone for several years and loves soul music. Today, she enthusiastically participates in a choir in Villeray, "La Clique vocale". This choir recently sang at a dinner-benefit show in Montreal for L’Accorderie Montréal Mercier-Hochelaga Maisonneuve.

At L’Accorderie, she divides her time between Montreal-North and Hochelaga. This organization aims to fight against poverty and social exclusion. It manages a service exchange network among individuals who use time as exchange value. Herself a participant, Mathilde can, for example, do one hour of housework for a lady that will offer one hour of singing lessons in return. The exchanges are not necessarily bilateral. The scoring system in effect allows her to tidy the home of another person, but to use her cumulated hours for the singing lessons.

Among the activities of the L’Accorderie, there are also collective exchanges, such as food buying groups. In Hochelaga, there is also a laptop loan program to fight Internet exclusion.

In closing, here is a message from Mathilde. If you have the opportunity to hear La Clique Vocale, pay attention to one of its members: Liliane Pellerin, a name to watch out for!

Mathilde-Hasnae in the collective garden of the Îlôt Pelletier community housing complex

Maddy L.

When she was still a newcomer, Maddy discovered the existence of proms − a tradition yet unknown to her −, by sewing decorations on the dress of a colleague at a Côte-des-Neiges bakery where she worked. She had taken this job, unrelated to her studies, because one has to pay the rent! Still, it is there that she established her first network of Montreal friends, people who helped her understand the school system and the work place in Quebec.

Maddy comes from the French town of Sarlat in Dordogne. She arrived here with her spouse, who comes from Bergerac. Having completed the equivalent of a master's degree in Sociology of Work in Bordeaux, she worked in that city for a few years in the community sector and held precarious positions as an employment counselor.

After that first job, she managed to successfully valorize her local work experience as well as her efforts to integrate the local work force. From then on, she held various positions directly related to her academic formation. After living in more central areas of the city, the purchase of her home brought her to this borough.

Mother of two children, one of the things she appreciates about life in Montreal is the opportunity to send them to an alternative school. The family now lives in a duplex near the Parc des Hirondelles, a neighborhood where many people from the great waves of Italian immigration of the 50s and 60s still reside.

Her spouse, who had found a job in his field upon arrival, has since recycled. Abandoning electronics, he completed a Diploma of Vocational Studies in woodworking, a profession in which he is much happier.

Maddy’s work schedule may surprise many people who believe that long work weeks occur only in the private sector. In addition to a full-time position at the Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi Ahuntsic-Bordeaux-Cartierville, she devotes some 20 additional hours each week to the agency "Mon toit, Mon Cartier", where she chairs the board.

The mandate of this non-profit organization is to help single mothers and their children by providing them with transitional housing and support. In the summer of 2015, the agency has opened its first building where 14 vulnerable women will stay with their kids. Located in a disadvantaged area, the building is topped with a green roof that will serve as a community garden with the hope the the residants and their kids will develop a taste for fresh food  grown with pride. The garden had a good first summer.

I asked her if sometimes the daily contact with vulnerable people going through difficult times was a burden. She said, no, on the contrary! Being a good nature, she tends to trust others and is happy to make a difference. Her smile and laughing eyes say it all!

Maddy in her office at Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi - Ahuntsic Bordeaux Cartierville

Pierre G.

It was after a lady had read on Facebook a word from my son about this blog that I met Pierre. He is her boss at the Carrefour Jeunesse-emploi Ahuntsic-Bordeaux-Cartierville (CJE-ABC). This is how encounters happen sometimes today!

On the rainy day when I met Pierre, he shared his little office with the bike he rides every day for much of the year to commute between his home in the Plateau and work.

Pierre knows the social fabric and the various stakeholders in the district very well, since he has been working in the area for nearly 25 years. A native of Thetford Mines, where he spent his youth, he studied at CEGEP Lionel-Groulx and completed a degree in sociology at UQAM. A job he held, while still a student, at the Bureau de concertation jeunesse in Villeray, was to have a significant impact on the rest of the course of his professional life.

It is thanks to this experience that he was selected as the first salaried employee of the Centre des jeunes St-Sulpice by a group of women seeking to help young kids living in low-income housing projects. Pierre contributed to the development of this youth centre. This organization’s goal is to promote social integration and academic success of young people whose horizon often seem limited to a radius of a few blocks outside of which they feel excluded.

After a few years in this position, he was among the first members of the staff who put together the Carrefour Jeunesse-emploi (CJE). At the beginning of the mandate of Jacques Parizeau as premier, a will had emerged at the highest levels to duplicate in government agencies the operation models of popular action groups to deal with social problems. The reality was naturally more complex than the fine principles suggested. It was quite a challenge to start base-up and learn to speak a language the officials who held budgets would understand and accept!

The CJE was still able to make its way. Having acquired organization and management skills during this process, Pierre is now General Manager of the CJE-ABC. The organization's mission is to support young people in their efforts to find work and go back to school. Like many other public funded organizations however, its mission must be renegotiated with each change of government and each restructuring wave.

Pierre finds his motivation to persevere in community service for 25 years in the success of young people. He mentions the case of a boy he knew from the age of six at the Centre des jeunes St-Sulpice. Having met him recently, he was glad to see he had become, at thirty years’ old, a physical education teacher and a full-fledged resident of the borough.

Pierre at the CJE